It was the chance which Skinny had been waiting for. He gathered the rope up in his hands and opened the noose wide. Then, leaning down as far as he dared, until he was right over the bear, he dropped it. The noose fell as straight as a die and, spreading out around the cub's head, lay across his shoulders with the side nearest the tree almost touching the ground. Just as the bear stepped one foot over the loop, Skinny grabbed the rope with both hands and gave a quick jerk. The noose tightened; and there was the most surprised bear you ever saw, tied fast to the tree! Skinny stood on the limb above like a big crow, cawing to beat the band and so excited that he came near falling again. "Gee, but that bear was mad," said Skinny, when he was telling us about it. "He growled and he snapped and he rolled on the ground; then he ran around and around the tree, until he had wound himself up short, but he couldn't get away. It was great, only I didn't dare jump on him again. He was too crazy." "Great snakes, Skinny!" exclaimed Bill. "You always have all the fun." "I guess you wouldn't have thought it so much fun if you had been up in the tree and couldn't get down. I'd 'a' choked him with the rope, if he hadn't got his feet tangled up in it so that I couldn't." "How did you get down, Skinny?" asked Benny, because Skinny had a way of stopping at the most interesting places and pretending that he was through telling about it. In order to tell about that I'll have to go back a little in this history. When Mr. Richmond told Skinny to go up to Savoy and to be careful not to let the bears get him, he was trying to scare a Boy Scout. He says that he hadn't any idea there would be a bear or deer around, or he shouldn't have let him go. But the next morning a man from Savoy drove past the house and told about seeing a bear on the way down. He didn't have his gun along and besides the bear ran into the woods when he saw him. That made Mr. Richmond feel uneasy. "I wish I hadn't let the boy go up the mountain," he said. "I don't suppose anything will happen to him, but I'd feel better if he hadn't gone. I guess, of the two, the bear would be the most scared if they should meet." "He told me that he'd surely come in time for dinner," said Mary. When dinner time came she put a plate on for him. He didn't show up, of course. He was up in the tree about that time, wondering how he ever would get down. After that Mr. Richmond grew real anxious and went to the house several times to see if Skinny had come. "That boy looked to me," he said at last, "as if he wouldn't be guilty of missing a good dinner if he could help it. I am going after him. He may be all right, but I'm going to find out for sure." With that, he hitched up a horse, took down his gun, and started. "Let me go, too," Mary called after him. "I can hold the horse while you are looking." "All right. Jump in. We'll probably meet him on the road somewhere."